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White House And House GOP At Odds Over Additional Two Weeks In Funding Measure … UPDATE: 3:00 p.m. — Senate Democrats will agree to House Republicans' two-week extension of government funding, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters on Tuesday, passing over a White House request for a monthlong stopgap funding bill.
Discussion:
Swampland, PostPartisan and Hullabaloo
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Religious Coalition Tells The GOP That 'The Budget Shouldn't Be Balanced On the Backs Of The Poor'

In boost for GOP plan, Fed chief says cuts won't derail recovery
Discussion:
Econbrowser, Mother Jones, The Plum Line, msnbc.com, FrumForum and National Review

Dem senator: Senate has accepted House GOP spending plan
Discussion:
The Note and The Raw Story

Obama calls Boehner amid high-stakes debate over spending
Discussion:
FrumForum

Romney contributes to congressional Republicans
Discussion:
The Politico, The Hill and Hot Air

Pelosi needles GOP over return of styrofoam cups
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Wonkette


Darrell Issa fires press secretary Kurt Bardella in NYT e-mail flap — The House Oversight and Government Reform committee is firing spokesman Kurt Bardella for sharing correspondence with reporters with a New York Times journalist. — The move comes a day after POLITICO reported that Bardella …
Discussion:
Slate, The Atlantic Online, Washington Wire, CNN, The Note, The Other McCain, Weigel, USA Today, New York Magazine, News Desk, TPMMuckraker and FrumForum, more at Mediagazer »
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Issa Fires Staff Member Who Shared E-Mails With Times Reporter
Discussion:
The Raw Story

Issa-Leaks — Disturbing news out of Capitol Hill for those who work with and in media.
Discussion:
The Politico

Wisconsin closely divided, but against Walker — There are two conclusions we can make from our poll on the Wisconsin conflict: the state is very closely divided, but it leans slightly to the union side of things rather than Scott Walker's on pretty much every question we asked.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Plum Line, WisPolitics Budget Blog and The Political Carnival
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A peek under the hood of the NYT/CBS poll — Allahpundit did a great job last night of dissecting the latest NYT/CBS poll based on its results from CBS' reporting. The survey found that a large majority of their respondents support keeping current collective bargaining rights in the public sector …
Discussion:
The Raw Story, TPMDC, Philly.com, Daily Kos and JSOnline

Majority in Poll Back Employees in Public Sector Unions
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Ezra Klein, Yglesias, Hit & Run, People-Press.org, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Guardian, Hot Air, TPMDC, Swampland, Don Surber, American Power, CBS News, Firedoglake, AlterNet, ThinkProgress, The Gateway Pundit, Outside the Beltway, The Maddow Blog, Federal Eye, Confederate Yankee, Online NewsHour, Pajamas Media, Taylor Marsh, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Los Angeles Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Magazine, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, National Review, Prairie Weather, JSOnline, Daily Kos, Sky Dancing, The Lonely Conservative, FrumForum, The Huffington Post, The Future of Capitalism, Paul Krugman, Politicususa, Crooks and Liars, The Political Carnival, WisPolitics Budget Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Taegan Goddard's …, The Caucus, The Mahablog and Public Policy Polling

Skewed Sample Data Used In PPP Wisconsin “Do Over” Poll
Discussion:
POWIP, National Review, JSOnline, The Nation, Da Techguy's Blog, Mother Jones, Firedoglake, The Raw Story and Pajamas Media


Billions in Bloat Uncovered in Beltway — The U.S. government has 15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development. — These are a few of the findings in a massive study of overlapping …
Discussion:
Cubachi, Parker Spitzer, Federal Eye, The Note, Liberty Pundits Blog, Right Turn, AmSpecBlog, Big Government, Washington Wire and New York Magazine
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How Rumsfeld misleads and ducks responsibility in his new book — Few people know the ins and outs of the Bush Administration as well as the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, who is flat-out disgusted with the evasions and elisions in Donald Rumsfeld's new book. Here he explains why: — By Bob Woodward
Discussion:
The Politico, The Daily Dish, Philly.com, Liberal Values, Emptywheel, Ben Smith's Blog and Oliver Willis

Dodd said last year he would not lobby — Former Sen. Chris Dodd (D) on Monday took the type of job he said last year he would not accept. — Dodd accepted the chairmanship of the Motion Picture Association of America — Hollywood's top lobbyist — on Monday.
Discussion:
CNN, The Politico and The Note
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Official: Chris Dodd to Lead MPAA
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, USA Today and The Raw Story

Gingrich Jumps In: First 2012 GOP Candidate — Sources: Former House Speaker Will form 2012 Exploratory Comm. — The 2012 presidential campaign is about to get its first big-name Republican. — ABC News has learned that Newt Gingrich will make the leap this week.
Discussion:
CNN, Ballot Box, NationalJournal.com, Right Turn, Politics Daily, Political Insider, National Review, Hot Air, Mediaite, Wonkette, Des Moines Register, FrumForum and The Politico
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Gingrich Will Launch Presidential Exploratory Committee
Discussion:
Salon


Rep. Holt beats Watson the super-computer at ‘Jeopardy!’ — There are a lot of smart people on Capitol Hill. But none of them can claim quite the same brainy bragging rights as Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.). — On Monday, Holt beat IBM's super-computer, known as Watson, at a round of “Jeopardy! …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, The Fix, CNN and Shakesville

Natalie Portman Condemns Galliano — The actress Natalie Portman, who has an endorsement contract with Dior for its Miss Dior Cherie fragrance, has strongly condemned its chief designer, John Galliano, for anti-Semitic remarks after a video surfaced of Mr. Galliano appearing to deliver a tirade in a Paris bar.
Discussion:
Runnin' Scared, BlogPost, The Other McCain, The New Republic, AOL News, Politics Daily and PopEater, more at Mediagazer »
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Exclusive: AWOL Democrats Experiencing ‘Dissension in the Ranks’ — Fox Nation has learned exclusively from a highly placed source within Wisconsin state politics that the fourteen AWOL Democrats are experiencing “dissension in the ranks.” State Sen. Julie Lassa (D) is pregnant and “extremely unhappy” about being on the run.
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, Verum Serum and Moe Lane


REPORT: How Koch Industries Makes Billions By Demanding Bailouts And Taxpayer Subsidies (Part 1) — Koch Industries, the international conglomerate owned by Charles and David Koch, is not only the second largest private company in America, it is the most politically active.
Discussion:
New York Observer
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ANSWER THIS: ANDREW SULLIVAN — Andrew Sullivan has achieved the hat trick of Washington journalism: author, editor, blogger. And he's adding another item to his long and diverse résumé, announcing this week that he's leaving The Atlantic and taking his blog to the new Daily Beast/Newsweek venture in April.

The New Normal — We're going to be doing a lot of deficit cutting over the next several years. The country's future greatness will be shaped by whether we cut wisely or stupidly. So we should probably come up with a few sensible principles to guide us as we cut.
Discussion:
Questions and Observations, driftglass, The Future of Capitalism, Eschaton and Sadly, No!

Speaker Boehner to Brody File: Preparing For “one giant fight over the future for our country.” — Speaker John Boehner tells The Brody File that when it comes to issue over the budget and raising the debt ceiling he is preparing for “one giant fight over the future for our country.”

African Americans respond to Obama's shift on DOMA — When same-sex marriage was upended in California by popular vote in 2008, gay rights activists pointed to one factor: religious African Americans who came out in record numbers for President Obama but who also largely voted against the marriage proposal, according to exit polls.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online and Balkinization


A Union Education — What Wisconsin reveals about public workers and political power. — The raucous Wisconsin debate over collective bargaining may be ugly at times, but it has been worth it for the splendid public education. For the first time in decades, Americans have been asked …
Discussion:
protein wisdom, The Atlantic Online, The Big Picture and Betsy's Page


Rev. Peter J. Gomes, Minister in Memorial Church, Dies at Age 68 — Reverend Peter J. Gomes, who oversaw Memorial Church for the past three and a half decades, died Monday evening after suffering a brain aneurysm and heart attack. He was 68. — His death was announced in an e-mail …
Discussion:
New York Times, PostPartisan, News Desk, Politics Daily, Towleroad News #gay and PrawfsBlawg

Eric Holder: Black Panther case focus demeans ‘my people’ — Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up Tuesday with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party because they are African American.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers


Frank Rich Joins New York Magazine — Frank Rich is joining New York Magazine, beginning in June. Rich will be an essayist for the magazine, writing monthly on politics and culture, and will serve as an editor-at-large, editing a special monthly section anchored by his essay.
Discussion:
Media Decoder, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Gawker, CBS New York, Mediaite and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Ohio Set to Vote on Ending Public Union Rights — COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Senate is expected on Thursday to consider a revised version of a bill to end collective bargaining for public-sector workers, and union members gathering outside the Statehouse here Tuesday morning said they were bracing for the worst.
Discussion:
The Political Carnival, Truthdig and Yglesias